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How should we pray? Or, ‘How shouldn’t we pray?’

When you pray, pray like this… Jesus told his followers; and then proceeded to break most of the rules that they’d been brought up with for prayer…

When you pray, address the God of all creation as you would your own father- with that level of love and intimacy… (in another passage Jesus says to his friends that they can call God ‘daddy’ when they pray…)

When you pray, remember also that God is the Lord of all things, sovereign in heaven, and that you are asking his rule on earth to grow through your prayers.

When you pray, remember to include your own life- the simple things like bread, the things you’ve done wrong and those who’ve wronged you… the Lord God knows and cares about such things.

When you pray, ask for help in the things you’ll face, deliverance from the challenges that will come against you.

When you pray, expect that God will hear, and will answer, and will do so because of his love for you rather than your amazing prayers or righteousness.

When you pray, don’t be all ‘ooh, look at me’, you might head off into the shed, or go for a walk, or pray in church… but don’t hog the spotlight and make it all about you- those prayers won’t be answered.

When you pray, put time into it- quality time, just you and the Father, but if something comes up that you need to do- healing or serving others, don’t turn them away for your prayertime… that’s that whole overholy thing.

Oh, and as for how to pray, which words to use in particular, or whether to pray out loud, the importance of tongues, formal liturgy, whether you can smile while praying… Jesus didn’t say a word about any of them.

"He brought me to his banquet hall and raised the banner of love over me. Restore my strength with raisins and refresh me with apples! I am weak from passion... His left hand is under my head and his right hand caresses me" - Song of Solomon 2:4-6